Records show psych professor who ‘diagnosed’ Trump as crazy doesn’t have a license

Now, that’s ironic. It turns out that the Yale professor/psychiatrist who diagnosed Trump as crazy, doesn’t have a valid license in her home state of Connecticut. Allegations, accusations and rumors started swarming on Twitter about this woman. Bandy Lee also just deleted her Twitter account. All of this stems from her making an unethical diagnosis of President Trump as mentally unstable and then meeting with a dozen Democrats last December over it. She even said he should be physically removed from office and committed. That’s called a coup.

Following Lee’s comments, the American Psychiatric Association released a statement on Tuesday warning members of its profession to refrain from making public diagnoses of public figures like Trump without a proper medical exam. She has never even met the President, so Lee violated the Goldwater Rule big time here. The Goldwater rule is the informal name given to Section 7 in the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) Principles of Medical Ethics that states it is unethical for psychiatrists to give a professional opinion about public figures they have not examined in person and from whom they have not obtained consent to discuss their mental health in public statements. It is named after presidential candidate Barry Goldwater.

“We at the APA call for an end to psychiatrists providing professional opinions in the media about public figures whom they have not examined, whether it be on cable news appearances, books, or in social media,” wrote the APA, without mentioning Lee specifically. “Arm-chair psychiatry or the use of psychiatry as a political tool is the misuse of psychiatry and is unacceptable and unethical.” Lee is back-pedaling on this as fast as she can now, but it’s too late for her. Perhaps it will be a lesson to other so-called mental health professionals who decide to mix politics with their profession.

Lee and her colleague responded to the issue in a piece to Politico on Wednesday, in which they claimed it is “perfectly okay to question the President’s mental state” because of their profession as “psychiatrists.” No, it is not. Not even if she was actually licensed and the APA backs me up on this. According to Campus Reform, state records indicate that Lee’s “physician/surgeon” license expired some three years ago — on May 31, 2015 — and that her application for reinstatement has been pending ever since. The publication was able to produce Lee’s license details to back up the claim.

Also at issue here is Lee’s “controlled substance registration for practitioner” license that has also lapsed, having expired last February. In other words, Lee is not legally able to prescribe medication as a medical practitioner. When responding to Campus Reform, Lee stated, “I only need one license.” She did not clarify precisely what license she has, or in which state she is registered. After this public mess, her license is unlikely to be renewed. And it shouldn’t be.